Bottom-making machine for furnaces



Sept. 9 1924. I

S. B. SHELDON Bd'ri'om MAKING mourns FOR FURNACES 2 Shani-Sim 1 ."Filed Jan. 16, 1922 Sept. 9 192 1,507,862

S. B. SHELDON BOTTOM MAKING MACHINE F 'OR FURNACES Filed Jan. 16, 1922 2 Slants-Shoot} fizz/em @maelfi 5726368072,

Patented Sept. 9, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATIENT oFFICE k SAMUEL 1B. SHELDON, 01E DULUTH, MINNESOTA.

' BOTTOM-MAKING AcHIN'nroR FURNACES.

Application filed January 16, 1922. Serial No. 529,804.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL B. SHELDON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Duluth, in the county of St. Louis and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottom- Making Machines for Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a new and 1mproved bottom making machine for furnaces and more particularly to a machine adapted to operate upon the usual charging floor tracks and to repair and remake bottoms in open hearth furnaces.

As is well known in the art, it is constantly necessary to repair and periodically necessary to renew the bottoms in open hearth furnaces. These bottoms are composed of loose material, dolomite being the material generally used, and the general practice heretofore has been to make these repairs by hand labor. This is uneconomical as to time and as to labor cost. Due to the extreme heat under which repairs are-ordinarily made, labor is inefficient and it is also extremely. diflicult to reachall parts of the furnace and to adequately and evenly place the bottom materials. Delays are often required to permit the parts tocool sufficiently for the repairs to be made.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a machine which is adapted to operate upon the usual charging floor tracks and which is adapted to positively and accurately place bottom making material at any desired point in the furnace.

It is a further 'object to provide a machine which can operate regardless'of the heat conditions in the furnace.

It is also an object to provide a machine which is a self-contained unit and which can be operated with a minimum of hand labor.

Other and-further objects'will appear as the description proceeds.

Broadly, my invention comprises a main car frame adapted to run upon the charging machine tracks "of'the furnace floor, this frame supporting carriages adapted to run upon the frame transversely of the tracks toward and from the furnace. The machine is supported from these carriages and is a self-contained unit comprising a material depositing gun, a material hopper, a source" of. compressed air for operating the un and a water-coolin s stem for coolin g y a the gun; Means are provided whereby the gun may be swung in both horizontal and vertical planes and whereby it may be rotated about its axis. The'gun is preferably provided with .a curved end to aid in the accurate deposition of the material and to extend its scope of operation.

I consider the feature of making tire structure a self-contained unit operable upon the usual charging floor tracks tobe a very importantfeature from the practical standpoint of the operation and utility of the apparatus. Themachine can be utilized in a way to readily coordinate its use with the other apparatus and operations upon' the charging floor. Apparatus of this general character intended to be otherwise operated or not a self-contained unit wouldso disrupt the usual cycle of operations and. impede the movement of the usual apparatus as'to render its use of doubtful value. j y

Another important feature of the invention lies in the fact that, the only portion of the apparatus which actually entersthe furnace is the outerend of the gun itself.

This portion of the gun is thoroughly watercooled and contains no moving parts, to be subjected to warp or disruption by "heat.

I have illustrated a preferred embodiment of my invention in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 1s a plan'view of my apparatus together with a diagrammatic representa tion of an adjacent portion of an openl apparatus Moving longitudinally of the frame 5 is the primary carriage 10 carried upon wheels 11. This carriage is moved by means of the. elec tric motor 12 and the cable 13 operating over pulleys 14. v g Moving longitudinally of the primary car.-

riage 10 is the secondary carriage 15 'sup-' ported upon wheels 16. The secondary car.

-'riage 15 is-provided at its, forwardendwith the pivot 17 and is further providedwith an arcuate series of 'frus-to-conical rollers 18 bearing upon asuitable run way." The are upon which these rollers are placed has as its center the pivot 17.

The top carriage 19 is connected to the pivot 17 of the secondary carriage and rests upon the frusto-conical rollers 18. It is provided toward the rear with the arcuate rack 20 and the beveled gear 21 carried by the standard 22 supported from the secondary carriage coacts with the rack to rotate the top carriage about the pivot. This gear 21 is operated by the hand wheel 23.

The secondary carriage is provided with the operating platform 24, adjacent this hand wheel, and upon this platform are suitable control means 25 adapted to control the movement of the main car and of the primary and secondary carriages. The top carriage is provided with the horizontal pivot 26 to which is pivoted the tilting floor 27. The rear end of this floor .27 is supported by means of the shaft 28, the lower end of which has a bearing in the top carriage. This shaft is rotatable, having a worm connection with the tilting floor, and being provided .on its upper end with the operating handle 29.

Upon the tilting floor are the two bearings 30 and 31 in which is supported the dolomite gun 32, the gun being rota-table in the bearings. The gun is provided with the rack 33 with which the gear 34 coacts, this gear being supported upon the bearing 30 and being operated by hand wheel 35. The outer end of the gun is curved downwardly at 36 and, as indicated by dotted lines at 37, an additional detachable, curved portion may be secured thereto.

The outer portion of the gun is waterjacketed, water being led through hose 38 and lead 39 to the outer end of the gun and being carried back by hose 40 to tank 41. The water is circulated by the motor driven pump 42 and is cooled in radiator 43, all of these elements being supported from the tilting floor.

A. dolomite hopper 44 is provided which communicates with the rear end of the gun through elbow 45. The elbow 45 has a direct connection with the main body of the gun, the connection being such that the elbow remains fixed while the gun is rotated. The motor driven air compressor 46 is supported from the tilting floor and is connected to air tank 47. The air pipe 48 leads from the tank to the rear of the elbow 45 in alignment with the bore of the gun. The flow of air is controlled by valve 49.

In the operation of my apparatus, the main car is moved along the track 7 until it reaches an opening into the furnace suitable for its operation. While thus moved, the primary carriage is retracted upon the main frame and the secondary carriage retracted upon the primary carriage so that the gun and operating elements are in the positionindicated in broken lines in Figure 2. In this position the gun is located entirely above the main carriage.

lVhen the gun is brought opposite the proper opening, the main carriage is moved forward upon the machine frame and the secondary carriage upon the main carriage an amount sufiicient to properly introduce the gun into the furnace. It will be obvious that by various adjustment of the two carriages, it will be possible to locate the end of the gun at any desired point transversely of the furnace. The gun may be rotated about its own axis so as to direct by means of the curved portion, the material to any desired point. This curved portion is particularly useful when working close to the opening and upon the same side of the furnace as the opening. To reach some such points, the additional curved element 37 may be necessary.

The gun may be swung to the right or left in the horizontal plane by swinging the top carriage about the pivot 17 This is accomplished by the hand wheel 23. It may be swung up and down in the vertical plane by tilting the tilting floor 27 about the horizon tal pivot 26. It will be observed that the operatingelements are largely on one side a of this pivot while the long projecting gun which is comparatively heavy and also carries water for cooling projects upon the opposite side of the pivot.

The entire assembly is thus approximately balanced about the pivot 26 so that the operation of hand wheel 29 to tilt the floor is rendered less diflicult. The dolomite in the hopper flows by gravity to the elbow 45 and adjustment of the entrance of air into the gun, serves to regulate the deposition of the material.

My floor making machine is thus capable of quickly and accurately depositing floor making material upon any portion of the floor and is adapted for rapid operation and easy control. It is operated from and carried upon the charging machine tracks and may be used from the tracks without disrupting the usual series of operations carried out upon the charging floor. Its use may be readily worked into the series of such operations with a considerable speeding up in work and reduction incost; I ain aware that various 'modifications maybe made to adapt the machi ne to particular uses and to varying conditions. It is my intentions to cover all modifications coming within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A bottom making machine for furnaces comprising a. car structure adapted to run upon charging machine tracks upon a furnace charging floor, a carriage movable relative to said car toward and from the furnace, and a dolomite gun-supported from care the valve 49, which controls riage and adapted for vertical and horizontal adjustment relative to the carriage.

2. A bottom making machine for furnaces comprising a car structure adapted to run upon charging machine tracks upon a furnace charging floor, a carriage movable relative to said car toward and from the furnace, and a dolomite gun supported from said carriage and adapted for vertical and horizontal adjustment relative to the carriage the gun having a curved end portion and being further provided with means adapted to rotate the gun about its axis.

3. A bottom making machine for furnaces comprising a car structure adapted to run upon charging machine tracks upon a furnace charging floor, a carria e movable relative to said car toward an from the furnace, a top carriage supported from said carriage and adapted for rotary movement relative to the carriage, and a dolomite gun supported by said top carriage.

4. A bottom making machine for furnaces comprising a car structure adapted to run upon charging machine tracks upon a furnace charging floor, a carriage movable relative to said car toward and from the furnace,

a top carriage supported from said carriage and adapted for rotary movement relative to the carriage, a horizontal pivot on the top carriage, a tilting floor carried by the top carriage and adapted tobe tilted about the horizontal pivot up on the top carriage, and

% dolomite gun supported upon the tilting oor.

5. A bottom making machine for furnaces comprising a car structure adapted to run upon charging machine tracks upon a furnace charging floor, a carriage movable relative to said car toward and from the furnace, a top carriage supported from said carriage and adapted for rotary movement relative to the carriage, a horizontal pivot on the top carriage, carriage and adapted to be tilted about the horizontal pivot upon the top carriage, and a dolomite gun, a dolomite hopper connected thereto, a source of compressed air for operating the gun, and a source of cooling water for said gun supported upon the tilting floor. c

Signed at Duluth, Minnesota, of January, 1922.

SAMUEL B. SHELDON.

this 9th day a tilting floor carried by the top 

